Two killed as Japan orders 870,000 to flee heavy rains

TOKYO: Two people
were confirmed dead yesterday as heavy rains pounded southwest Japan, prompting
flood and landslide warnings and orders for 870,000 people to seek safety. More
than a million more people were advised to leave their homes after the
country’s weather agency raised the alert to its highest level for parts of
northern Kyushu. The emergency warning is issued “if there is a
significant likelihood of catastrophes”.

Officials
confirmed two deaths, one in western Saga prefecture where a man was found in a
car that had been swept away. A second man died in Fukuoka as he tried to
escape from a car trapped in rising floodwaters. Government spokesman Yoshihide
Suga said a third person, in Saga, was in a state of “cardiorespiratory
arrest”-a term usually employed by Japanese officials to indicate a
person’s death before it is officially confirmed by a doctor.

“There are
many reports of damage in different areas due to flooding of rivers, landslides,
and submerged houses, and there is a possibility of serious damage occurring in
the coming hours,” Suga added. Evacuation orders and advisories issued by
local authorities are not mandatory, although officials urge residents to heed
them. For those leaving after such warnings, government shelters are available,
and some choose to stay with friends and family as well.

The fire and
disaster management agency said it had already received multiple reports of
flooded houses in Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. “We are seeing
unprecedented levels of heavy rains in cities where we issued special
warnings,” a spokesman for the Japan Meteorological Agency told reporters.
“It is a situation where you should do your best to protect your lives,”
weather agency official Yasushi Kajiwara said.

He also urged
those living in areas currently under evacuation advisories to act quickly. The
weather agency issued its highest warning for heavy rain early morning, before
downgrading it mid-afternoon. Still, the agency said heavy rain was likely to
continue in western Japan, with high risks of landslides and flooding.

‘Like a sea’

In Saga, a mother
wearing a life vest in a rescue boat told public broadcaster NHK she had been
saved from the floodwaters. “I was so scared as I have a little child. I’m
worried there could be worse damage because there’s an ongoing power
outage,” she said.

Elsewhere, a man
in a shelter in Saga said he was sleeping as the floodwater entered his home.
“When I woke up, water surged to my feet,” he told NHK. “I’ve
never seen anything like this. It’s important to evacuate early.” The
JMA’s emergency warnings affect areas in Saga, Fukuoka and Nagasaki, where the
severe weather has also disrupted transport, forcing the suspension of some
train services and some road closures.

Television
footage showed rivers swollen by the rain and parked cars sitting in muddy
brown water nearly up to the vehicles’ roofs. Small landslides have already
been reported. At a station in Saga, stranded passengers sat on benches with
water around their ankles. A woman living near an overflowing river said she
had been woken by the sound of heavy rain and a warning alarm on her phone
indicating a disaster alert. “This is very rare. Rice fields and other
places are flooded. It’s like a sea,” she told NHK.

Japanese
authorities regularly urge people to take evacuation orders seriously,
particularly after disastrous heavy rains last summer in Japan’s west killed
more than 200 people. Many of the deaths were blamed on the fact that
evacuation orders were issued too late and some people failed to follow them.
Entire neighborhoods were buried beneath landslides or submerged in floodwaters
during the disasters. – AFP